• It’s another massive Saturday edition of The Purge and we kick off this week with the release of the new Years & Years single ‘Meteorite’. The UK pop outfit’s first new single in 12 months is lifted from the soundtrack to the new movie ‘Bridget Jones’s Baby’ and it would appear that the Bridget Jones character is one that Y&Y frontman Ollie Alexander identifies with. “If there’s anyone I’d like to be it’s Bridget – a wanton sex goddess with a very bad man between her thighs,” he said in a statement.
• Calvin Harris is back with a new track too. The follow up to his monster Rihanna collaboration ‘This Is What You Came For’, ‘My Way’ was delivered to digital retail and Australian media yesterday. No word yet on that next album project.
• A selection of Sony Music stable stars will be appearing at the Royal Melbourne from from today. Taylor Henderson will be taking to the stage today and tomorrow, Monday and Tuesday it’s Jess and Matt’s turn, then Cyrus on Wednesday and Thursday, followed by Missy Lancaster and Nat Conway (September 23), Jai Waetford and Nat Conway (September 24), Jessica Mauboy (September 25) and Anthony Callea on September 26 and 27.
• Superstar Aussie DJ Joel Fletcher is back with a new single. ‘Obsessed’ dropped at digital retail yesterday and features a vocal collaboration with up and coming songstress Bianca, marking the Melbourne-based producer’s first single release of the year. Joel hit the big time with his No.2 single ‘Swing’, along with Savage, which went on to sell more than 210,000 copies for a triple platinum certification.
• Sydney outfit Seekae have also returned with new music, yesterday dropping ‘Turbine Blue’, their first single release in two years. It’s been described by their label Future Classic as “a siren’s tune, moving towards something blissful and agonising, like the cyclical nature of love, departing and arriving, hurting and pleasing all in one act.” Listen HERE.
• House music superstar David Morales will be in Australia in early December to play poolside at the Electric Gardens launch party in Sydney. Dubfire and Matador are already confirmed to play in the courtyard of The Ivy at the December 10 event, but David will keep the party cool out by the pool, with a hand-picked selection of house anthems. “I am creating a place for people to forget their troubles for a while. It is important in the world we are living in today,” he said in a statement.
• The news is great for UK performer Skepta, who has walked away as the winner of the 2016 Mercury Prize for his album ‘Konnichiwa’. But the news isn’t so crash hot for his fans, with confirmation late yesterday afternoon in the wake of his win that his Australian tour, due to kick off tonight in Perth, has been cancelled. Dates were shifted around earlier this month to accommodate the Mercury Prize ceremony in the UK, hot on the heels of his nomination. But “due to circumstances beyond his control”, the tour will now not go ahead. Six of his Australian shows had sold out.
• Blue Mountains hip hop outfit Thundamentals have dropped a new single entitled ‘Never Say Never’ and have confirmed they’ll be heading out on tour from late next month in support of it. The tour kicks off at Canberra’s UC Refectory, but makes stops in a number of centres across the country, including the usual five suspects, plus Hobart and regional dates.
• E^st is another artist hitting the road in support of new music. The songstress, who this week dropped a new music video for her single ‘Screentime’, has announced four live dates from early November. She’s at Northcote Social Club in Melbourne on November 04, Newtown Social Club in Sydney on November 05, The Foundry in Brisbane on November 11 and Adelaide’ Fat Controller on December 09. Tickets for all be on sale now.
• The UK top four is steady again this week, with The Chainsmokers once again leading the chasing pack with their global smash ‘Closer’. But there are two tracks that rocket into this week’s top 20 in Ol’ Blighty and the best of them is one of our own… Sia. The Adelaide native’s latest, ‘The Greatest’, bullets from a debut of No.49 to No.5, giving her the fifth top ten UK single of her career thus far. The other track doing some serious bulleting of its own this week is ‘Side To Side’ from Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj, which leaps from No.24 to No.8. Lady Gaga’s ‘Perfect Illusion’ is new at No.12 and the new James Arthur single ‘Say You Won’t Let Go’ is in at No.25.
• The UK albums chart top ten sees a swarm of new entries, seven in all, including a new No.1 from home country favourites Bastille (‘Wild World’). Our own Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds come in at No.2 with ‘Skeleton Tree’, ahead of more debuts from The Beatles (‘Live At The Hollywood Bowl’) and Meat Loaf (‘Braver Than We Are’) at Nos.3 and 4 respectively. Country outfit Ward Thomas’ album, which was a No.1 debut last week, is down to No.5 in the mire, while the new KT Tunstall album ‘Kin’ pops its head into the countdown at No.7. The top ten wraps with debuts at nine and ten for Twin Atlantic (‘GLA’) and Teenage Fanclub (‘Here’) respectively. Jack White’s ‘Acoustic Recordings : 1998 – 2016’ misses the top ten, coming in at No.12.
• It’s week number four on top of the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for The Chainsmokers, Halsey and their collaboration ‘Closer’, holding all comers at bay, including Twenty One Pilots’ single ‘Heathens’, which continues its rise up the countdown, now nestling into the runner up position. Though the rest of the top ten is relatively quiet, Adele makes her way in, jumping from No.11 to No.8 with ‘Send My Love (To Your New Lover)’, while Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez are also on the move with ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’, which jumps from No.12 to No.10. One of the big movers this week, however, is the Ariana Grande ftg. Nicki Minaj single ‘Side To Side’, which leaps from No.31 to No.18.
• Travis Scott scores the first No.1 Billboard album of his career with his sophomore album ‘Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight’, which premieres in the top spot ahead of a new entry at No.2 for A Day To Remember (‘Bad Vibrations’). Drake’s ‘Views’ is still in the picture, but last week’s No.1 from Barbra Streisand (‘Encore : Movie Partners Sing Broadway’) is down to No.6. There’s a five place drop for Frank Ocean’s ‘Blonde’ and a nine place drop for Britney Spears’ ‘Glory’. Our Sia, however, rockets from No.22 to No.13 with ‘This Is Acting’.
• The Purge is done and dusted for another Saturday morning, but we shall return, bright as buttons, at 7pm tonight for the weekly look at the ARIA top 100s. Who’s debuted where, who’s got the new certification, who’s tanked… all that and more in Chart Watch, live again from 7 o’clock tonight.
TICKETS PLEASE
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19 : Jimmy Barnes (Nationally)
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19 : Red Hot Summer Tour (Nationally)
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 19 : RocKwiz (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide)
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22 : Paul Kelly & Charlie Owen (Nationally)
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 : Puscifer (Nationally)
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 23 : Bruce Springsteen (Nationally)
Australia's first stop for pop!